In this debriefing, I will eventually write about the, "Premature kill" or elimination of other players in the game and how this alters and pre-determines other winners; Barring of course any further mayor errors in game play afterwards. Keep in mind that the game is a Standard game and not a Terminator game, which has a different logic that applies.

I will be referring to "The Wheel" most likely in this thread, a lot, and will now explain what I mean by this term. "The Wheel" or "Roulette Wheel," is the term I use for how the winner is determined in these types of Escalating settings. Every player takes turn cashing in their spoils starting with the first player to trade in at 4 troops to the last player who is the eventual winner of the game. Thus that player is the one who cashed in for enough troops to win the game, thus it was, "The Wheel" that had stopped on that player and determined that player the winner of the game.

As a side bit of strategy, let me just say that just as an actual Roulette Wheel in a Casino can be manipulated with Magnets under the number to attract or repel that metal ball (I think they are still made of metal), to or from a number, so also can the escalating wheel also be manipulated as it slows down (Approaching the eventual winner of the game). This is risky but also a part of the game and not a premature killing or elimination of a player but a calculated risk. You know that the wheel will not come around to you again so you take the risk and go for gold or bust.

But those situations are not Pre-mature and in this debriefing thread, I will attempt to explain in more details, what a premature kill or elimination is. Simply put, it is an elimination that determines some one else the winner of the game barring any other major mistakes afterwards which is another issue that will be discussed in this debriefing thread as well. A "Premature Kill is when in all likelihood, the wheel will most definitely come back to you or can come back to you, yet you decide to go for the game kill at that time when all the indicators are against it.

To understand more about these indicators, please click on the Link below...

And with no further Ado, On with the debriefing. I hope that you all find this enjoyable and edifying to your store of knowledge and understanding of this game. Unlike other debriefings, I will be posting all the rounds on the OP, (Original Post) and only posting when the rounds are up and ready for comments. You will have to read this OP to see the new round posted and make your comments then as well.

And thank you all for taking the time and Reading this thread.=============================================================

I would point out that Future photos will be from my turns as any Status or Score Board as I like to call them. This is just the original position to comment on. Yellow Player initiated the game. This is about as normal as any beginning with everyone receiving an equal share of regions distribution except for Blue who is shut out of NA. (North America).

In a perfect game, this would be a challenge and an obstacle to overcome or it would definitely lead to a game loss for Blue, barring of course any inaccurate plays that would provide the opportunities needed for Blue player to win the game. You can read more about this in...

This game commenced with a seasoned player who knows the importance of "Prep Play." Yellow does not want to lose any troops assaulting 3's so simply plays according to the "Strategy of the Stacks" which is based on the "The First Four Moves.'

This Prep move by Yellow Player, also gave Pink Player an excellent carding opportunity at Havana. While it is recommended for students to get out of the habit of attacking in the first round by simply Dropping and Prepping for round 02, there is really nothing wrong with carding in the first round especially if there are other stacks that can reinforced, and you can at least drop 1 troop on one other stack for maximum game results.

In this case, Pink Player had E1 and E5 that reinforced each other and could drop 1 troop on Cairo in order to attempt the card on Havana allowing for the possible loss of just 1 troop, thus maintaining 3 stacks in the first round. But Pink player failed to see it in time and just continued with his prep move instead.

I (Cyan), simply carded on Vancouver and advance my whole stack to Vancouver. The idea is to put some distance in the game between my stacks (Los Angele and Bogota), for maximum defensive and assaulting capabilities. Not having a stack in Europe I dropped on Naroibi in order to develop the only other effective stack in the game that I had. Usually stacks east of Hong Kong are bottle necked by Hong Kong, Novosibirsk and Manila as these are gateway regions back and forth and usually in high demand. =)

One other debriefing note on my play is that I did not attempt to take Oz. Those situations where one gets 3 of 4 in the smaller BZ's (Bonus Zones), are in fact double edge swords that can cut both ways. It looks enticing but my position lacked much to be desired for me to even think about such hazardous play. There is only one condition under which I would attempt to conquer a BZ in the first round and you can read about it in...

My Critique:These Critiques are mainly about round one and the photo is the position of round 2 on my turn.

RED PLAYReds position is as good as it gets. Includinng Dubai, the primest of regions, Red has four well positioned stacks. Reinforcing Anchorage insures him a foot hold in North America and is one of the gates to bar other players access through there. Should any player need it.

GREEN PLAYGreen position also contains four well positioned stacks only two of them are in North America. But they are far enough apart to be effective and they also watch over the other two gates into North America. One thing that I did not like, in my opinion, is that Green traded the Oceania Gate of Bangkok in order to strengthen Delhi. I think he should have kept both stacks and later on try to move Delhi stack further away north from Bangkok as he also has a stack on Dakar so that he does not need to be so close to Dubai to cover it. Incidentally, Dakar is another gateway region into South America. Between Mexico City and Dakar, Green player has South America and it's occupants locked up in there.

BLUE PLAY Blue position has three good stacks but none of them are in North America. But Jakarta is a gate way to OZ (Oceania BZ) and so Blue has those two players locked up there.

YELLOW PLAYYellow Position contains 5 well spread out stacks but nothing in Europe. In my opinion, in such positions the best strategy is one of survival all the way through and see what happens. Perhaps opportunities to move a stack closer to Europe could present themselves. But having to fight so many stacks to get to some one In Europe for a kill is very doubtful. In my opinion. Unless opportunities present themselves.

PINK PLAYPink is a totally new player to these games so he is still learning the strategy. This explains why he has all seven stacks still in play. It's interesting to note that while he does enter round 2 with the most troops (27 troops), his high troop count does not remain so throughout the game. We will try to watch how this develops and see if the Strategy of the stacks could have help Pink Player with his troop count.

CYAN PLAYMy position is somewhat similar to that of Yellow player in that we both do not have a stack in Europe or nearby. My strategy is basically the same as I mentioned for Yellow player; To build up safely and see what happens. And with stacks in both minor BZ's my position is pretty safe and hard to get to.=======================================================

Generally speaking, one should not have stacks so close together as I do in Bogota and Sao Paulo, as it defeats the purpose of having strong stacks in the game. But since my strategy in the game was basically one of survival throughout the game, I figured I will play like this for a while and hopefully combine them later for attacking purposes. If they do not get taken in the process that is. Notice that together I really have one stack of 7 troops between Bogota and Sao Paulo. Or two stacks of 4 each. Obviously one stack of 7 is stronger (for attacking purposes), than two stacks of 4 each.

One thing that I would like to mention about locking up other players or "Ranching" them by controlling a choke point like Hong Kong for example, is that this assures in a way that the game is not swept away by other players. At least not for quite some time in the game. One of the objectives to keep in mind throughout the game is not only do you want to attain the best position possible, but you also want to make the worse position possible for everyone else. This means making it difficult for other players to get to everyone else by having them have to go over you to get to them.---

My Critique:Keep in mind that Yellow begins each round and the rounds end with Blue. The Photo is of Round 3 on my (Cyan) turn.

RED PLAYDropping all 3 troops on one location may do in a crunch but it is not recomended. The stacks need to develop with the more important region receiving a least one troop. The more important Stack on Anchorage could have used this opportunity to move in, right next to Yellow player by conquering Edmonton. To me this was a priority move and not Madrid easy card spot.

This may be just a personal opinion but I find that most of the action in most games occur right in the center. Whether it be a game of Chess or Basket Ball, the control of that center portion of the game is often crucial in the strategy thereof. If some thing really important is going to happen, it will most likely happen there, in the center of the game, and not off to the side or the edge some where.

For this reason, when it comes to N. America, who ever is occupying that Central Position of Chicago is the player that you want to be able to cover should some thing major happen in the game later on. Sure it's good to make it harder for some one who is not in NA to get inside by covering the gates (Anchorage, Montreal and Mexico City), but when most of the players are there already then I feel that you just need to be able to respond right in the center, should you get the opportunity to do so later on in the game.

GREEN PLAYGreen carded on the easy card spot of Madrid. To me this is like a waste of move. Green player had an excellent chance to do several things on this turn.

1). Create a new stack2). Control the gate to Oceania3). Occupy a more central position in the game.

This would be a case where the dropping of all 3 troops into a single region would be worth it. Instead of carding on Madrid, Carding on Moscow (advancing all troops), and forting half of the troops from Moscow to Bangkok would have been a powerful move in this players opinion. Leaving a stack of Approximately 5 troops on Moscow and another stack of approximately 5 troops on Bangkok. Accounting for decent dice that is.

This has to do with the Central position of Moscow being of great value because all of the action in that part of the game map will revolve for the most part around Moscow and primarily of course Dubai. It would also pose a problem for Blue player because he would then be at risk of losing all influence in Asia and would have to spend time and troops getting to other Colors in Asia to make a kill.

At the same time Red Player would also have to figure out how to get past Bangkok to kill Blue player and especially Pink or Cyan all the way in the inside of Oceania. It is these sorts of tactical and positional play that really make the game exciting to see who will find a way to overcome all those obstacles to win the game. It's not just about having stacks but where you have them. The race is also one of getting into position and waiting for when the shit hits the fans. lol.

BLUE PLAYBlue also carded on Madrid again missing an opportunity to create another stack. While I agree with the easy card spot of Madrid, having a stack at Madrid and another at Astana (So that no one can take away that position with out a fight), in my opinion would have been much better.

Yes Moscow is more Central but at Madrid and Astana, Blue would be able to react in both Europe and Asia. Blue would not need Astana as then the Astana stack and the Madrid stack would be to close together for comfort. You want to have your stacks spread out as far and as wide as possible to insure both defensive and offensive capabilities.

Blue would then have had four stacks decently spaced apart and ready to act. The Lagos stack could later be moved to Cape Town occupying a more defensive position further in and harder to reach. And farther away from the Madrid stack.

YELLOW PLAYThere is not much that I can see for Yellow except to move his stack on Johannesburg to Cape Town by Carding there because Cape Town is more of an offensive position (Because it attacks Lagos as well as Naroibi), where as Johannesburg is more of a hide away spot. Yellow has no need to card on Madagan because he has Cape Town to card on. This would then make Johannesburg an easy card spot between Yellow and Cyan player.

PINK PLAYNot placing priority in NA stack could easily turn into a major mistake. I would have played it differently myself. I would have dropped 2 troops to New York (And not attack from there), and 1 troop on Stockholm and try to gain Moscow. Up to now no one is trying for moscow and yet Moscow is so very important a region to leave alone. After taking Moscow I would then reinforce Moscow with 2 troops from Reykjavic so as to have a strong stack on Moscow.

CYAN PLAYI dropped 1 troop on Naroibi because it is an important near central region making contact with Dubai and I dropped the other 2 on Vancouver because I intended to card on Edmonton and move my stack there because it would be closer to Europe should any opportunities present themselves for attack that way.

From Edmonton, I still maintain an eye on Yellow Stack in the center of NA and I position myself to attack into Europe just in case. Or into Asia if need be.

I did read the "first 4 moves" before starting this game and did not card according to beginner's rule. However, I had no understanding of the wheel and how the spoils are calculated which now understand thanks to the debriefer.

All comments are welcomed and I sure would like to hear from the original players; What their thoughts were, if they remember, at the time of the game.

Also any comments that anyone may have on my comments. lol. =)

Round 02 can be found at the bottom of the Original post. Just Scroll up till you see the Show/Hide box titled, "Round 02."===========================================================================

otter805 wrote:I did read the "first 4 moves" before starting this game and did not card according to beginner's rule. However, I had no understanding of the wheel and how the spoils are calculated which now understand thanks to the debriefer.

Many of the terms such as "Wheel" or "The Strategy of the Stacks," are products of my own invention. They are not recognized by the SoC.

Sorry to take so long but I finally got around to it. Round 03 is posted in the Original Post above on top. Just click on the link below, to go straight to the original post, scroll down just a bit and click on the show hide box for "Round 03."[235]